Saudi Arabia claims its mining deposits could be valued at $2.5 trillion, with gold, copper, and Rare Earth Elements in its reserves, CNN and S&P Global reported.
Saudi Arabia claimed on Thursday that its reserves of rare earth elements are valued at approximately $2.5 trillion and could be a key asset in transitioning the Saudi economy away from its dependence on fossil fuels, CNN and S&P Global reported.
While the main Saudi deposits include gold, zinc, copper, and lithium, there are also rare-earth deposits of dysprosium, terbium, neodymium, and praseodymium, which are key to high-tech sectors like electric vehicles, wind turbines, and high-speed computers.
According to a report by S&P Global, Saudi investments in the mining industry are focused on gold and copper, with only 5,2% of the country’s mining exploration budget allocated to other types of deposits.
Abigail Hunter, executive director of the Minerals Center at SAFE (Securing America’s Future Energy), said that although the Saudi project is ambitious, it is still “lightyears away” from competing with the big players in the rare earth elements sector.
“The reality is mining is a really long game. It takes three to five years to build a processing plant. It can take up to 29 years in some jurisdictions,” Hunter told CNN.
The mining project also appears to be part of Saudi Arabia's diversification objective under Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the country’s resources away from reliance on oil reserves and exports.
In the mining sector, even though it's still far behind the oil sector, the Saudis have approximately 40 years of reserves in gold and copper deposits, according to a S&P Global survey.
Alongside their local projects, Reuters reported that Critical Metals Corp was in talks with a Saudi partner to invest in Greenland’s Tanbreez mine, with the kingdom refining 25% of the rare-earth minerals extracted from the mine.
The project would be centered on supplying the United States defense sector, with the remaining 75% already pre-sold to American and European investors for refining.
Additionally, the Saudi Public Investment Fund is planning to turn its mining investment firm Manara Minerals into a “company with technical capabilities,” Bandar Al-Khorayef, Industry and Mineral Resources Minister, told Reuters.
The objective would be to transform the company, a joint venture of the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) and the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which oversees projects related to Vision 2030.
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